Mochi (Part II)
by LuxAve
Summary: Hiro's home alone for the weekend and a horrible sadness befalls him.


**You guys, one of my other cats passed away! My cat Junior (I called him June-Bug after an incident with a June-Bug) passed away last month and a few days ago, my cat Smokey (I called him either Smokey-Bear [because he was really fat] or 'Mokey) passed away. Now I have one kitty left; and she doesn't like to cuddle.**

 **So I wrote another story involving Mochi.**

 **And, uh sorry, but Tadashi's not alive in this one.**

 **And because I was the unfortunate one to find Smokey, I tried to make this as angsty as possible. Because, why not?**

 **(-)**

 **Mochi.**

 **(Part II)**

Seventeen-year-old Hiro Hamada was having a day for the books; nothing was going the way they were planned and he was just in a horrible, horrible mood. The storm cloud that had been above his head since he woke up that morning only gotten darker and darker as the day wore on; at one point, the almost adult swore he saw a lightning strike!

Earlier in the school year, Hiro opted in to take a few of the courses he needed during the summer, thus enabling him to graduate earlier. Again. The official school year was set to start in a few weeks, so for the past few days, Hiro had been running around studying his ass off for the exams he had. The exams he had today.

And he hadn't realized what day it was until his alarm and calendar alarm woke him up that morning.

No, he knew he had exams that day. He knew it was his last day of classes for the summer semester.

He hadn't remembered it was the anniversary of his older brother's passing.

When he saw that as he unlocked his phone screen that morning, the storm cloud made itself comfortable above him.

He spent a majority of the day quiet. He didn't have to greet his aunt that morning, she was out of town for some kind of baking thing – if Hiro was being honest, he wasn't listening as she told him a week prior. He didn't even talk to anyone at school until he had to give his final presentation for his prototype.

And even _that_ didn't go as planned.

His prototype, a firefighting suit that was supposed to be more protective of the wearer, didn't work. So not only was he embarrassed that it didn't do what it was supposed to and help the teacher put of the fire, he also had to deal with failing that exam and ending with a C in that class.

He had never gotten a C before. Ever. In his entire life.

Anniversary of his brother's death. Three exams to take in a row. Fire that he started. Prototype failing. Receiving the lowest grade of his academic career.

That storm cloud got bigger and bigger throughout the entire day.

After an incident in the cafeteria with him tripping over his own foot and his tray of food going all over him and a few other students, he just went home. He didn't even bother going to the lab, who knows how he would have messed something up, catch someone on fire, or something else equally destructive and embarrassing.

Going home sounded nice.

As he walked down the sidewalk, seeing the closed café in the distance, he had a passing thought that Tadashi was behind all of this that had happened today; that he needed a laugh and had convinced the universe to embarrass his little brother.

Hiro finally made it inside the door to their house and immediately took off his shoes and dropped his bag by the door, he had no need for that for a few weeks, and walked up the stairs to the kitchen.

"Mochi! I'm home!" He called to their family cat.

The teen made his way further into the kitchen, grabbing him some juice and snagging a few cat treats from above the fridge before he flopped over the couch.

"Mochi!" He called the cat again. "I got treats!" He stretched out and snatched the remote off the table, thinking his cat would come to him eventually.

He was able to lie on the couch a good hour, without his cat, before his aunt called him.

"Hey, sweetie." Her voice was more gentle than usual.

"Hi." He answered flatly, pausing the TV screen.

She sighed. "Bad day? How'd your exams go?"

He groaned and rolled over to bury his face in a pillow for a few minutes. "I failed one."

"Oh I don't believe that." She told him. "You're being to hard on yourself."

"No, this was the presentation one." He sat up and began to clarify. "In front of fifteen other students, my prototype failed and I managed to catch the table on fire. Mrs. Swift failed my exam and gave me a C for the entire class."

"Do you have to take the class over?" Cass asked.

He shrugged even though he knew she couldn't see him. "I hope not. That class was beyond boring. I shouldn't have to though, the class I have to take after this said I only needed a C to get in. So I better not." He huffed. He stood up to make his way into the kitchen to actually find something to eat and hopefully not trip over himself and spill everywhere. "Ha," He laughed at himself. "So after all my exams were don with, I decided I'd just get something to eat from the cafeteria." He began another short tale of his day as he started a pot of water.

"Oh dear. You've had quite the day." She commented when he was finished talking.

He nodded. "Yeah."

As he waited on the water to boil, he filled up Mochi's food bowl. "Mochi!" He called out to get that fat cat to come out of hiding. "I haven't seen him since I got home." He told his aunt on the other end of the line.

"What did you do to him now?" Cass joked.

"I only stepped on the tip of his tail!" He waved his hand around in the air for emphasis that she couldn't see.

His aunt laughed at his misfortune. "Better sleep with an eye open tonight." There was suddenly a lot of background noise on her end. "Sweetie, I gotta go, we're going to this dinner thing. I'll call you later tonight."

"Alright, have fun Aunt Cass." Her seventeen-year-old nephew told her.

"I will. Bye sweetie." Cass said before the two hung up.

Hiro dropped his phone on the table and checked on the water in the pot before he set off to find the fat cat.

"Mochi!" Hiro called multiple times in every room he walked in. He even checked in the café and out in the little yard behind the garage. "Mochi, buddy where are you?" The calico wasn't in his usual places – under the couch, in the windowsill behind the chair, on the window seat by the stairs, nor was he weighing the corner of Hiro's desk down in the garage.

After another half hour went by, the teen was getting frantic.

"Mochi!" He started walking around the house shaking the bag of cat treats that were known for their magic of making Mochi just appear out of thin air. "Bud come on, you're worrying me."

 _Meow._

It was faint, but Hiro heard it.

"Mochi!" He called louder then fell silent, waiting to hear his cat again.

 _Meow._

The sound came again a minute or so later. It was a soft and pitiful sound, weak and tired.

That sound did not have a good meaning behind it.

"Mochi!" Hiro called again, moving toward where he thought the cat's cry was coming from.

 _Meow._

Okay, definitely coming from upstairs in his room.

The teen shot up the stairs quicker than he had in a long time. "Mochi, bud where are you?"

 _Meow._

It was slightly louder this time. Hiro was definitely getting close. He looked around the room; trying to think of any spots the cat could have gotten stuck in. But then he noticed the rice paper bamboo divider that had Tadashi's corner closed off.

"Mochi?" Hiro carefully slid the divider open more so he could step in. He didn't like going into Tadashi's side of the room, trying to keep as much of his brother's essence in the space as much as he could.

 _Me-_

Was all that responded to the teen; but Hiro was right above the sound. He dropped to the ground and spotted the calico under his brother's bed.

"What are you doing under there you fluff?" He asked, reaching forward to pet the cat's head. "Come on out." He patted the ground in front of him, trying to urge the cat to come out.

After a minute, Mochi _tried_. The calico pulled himself out from underneath the bed with his front paws. And for a second, Hiro didn't understand why the cat was crawling until his noticed it.

Mochi couldn't move his back legs.

He was meowing pitifully, refusing to move, his back legs not cooperating with him.

Hiro sighed. This wasn't good. "Hey, Mochi you can stop." He placed his hand as gently as he possibly could on the cat's upper back, halting the family pet's movements. The cat's eyes were almost fully closed as he looked up at Hiro.

"Oh, buddy." Hiro mumbled. "Stay right here. I'll be right back." He ran down the stairs. He grabbed Mochi's food and water bowls hoping he could get the cat to eat something, and snagged his phone from the table, remembering to turn the stove off before he ran back upstairs.

"Here buddy." Hiro greeted their old cat. "Got you some food and water." He placed the bowls down as close to the cat as he could.

The feline bypassed the food and went straight for the water. He didn't bother dipping his paw in and flinging the water everywhere like he usually did, just went right into drinking it.

Hiro sat on the floor, leaning his back against the wall, his hand absently, but gently, petting the calico's fur between his ears. He didn't want to look at Mochi, but he couldn't take his eyes off the cat. Eventually, the cat was done drinking and he pulled himself over Hiro's thigh, content to curl up with one of his owners for the last time.

The seventeen year old sighed as he finally looked away from the cat, but was greeted by all of Tadashi's things.

He remembered when Tadashi brought the cat home.

" _Tadashi?" Cass had raised an eyebrow when she saw that her oldest was hiding something in his jacket. The brothers had been living with their aunt for a little over a year at that point in their lives._

" _Aunt Cass?" He repeated her name in the same questioning tone, but with an innocent smile on his little eleven-year-old face. He jerked a little bit when what he was trying to hide, moved a little._

 _Cass bent down to look Tadashi in the eye. "Whatcha got there?" She poked the jacket where it was moving._

" _Well," He hesitated for a moment, and would have kept on hesitating if it weren't of a little head popping up from the opening of his jacket, where it wasn't zipped up all the way._

" _Kitty!" A just turned four-year-old Hiro beamed a smile from his chair at the table, dropping his crayon and trying to climb down to the floor._

 _Their aunt reached over and unzipped Tadashi's jacket, and taking a hold of the little kitten he had in his arms tucked against him to protect from the cold. "Tadashi?" She repeated his name and looked between the little calico kitten in her hands to her oldest nephew._

" _The mother left him alone!" Tadashi suddenly said. "Jack's parents already took the other three kittens, but they couldn't keep the fourth. They were going to take him down to the humane society. And I don't like the humane society!" He leaned toward his aunt. "I know what they do to them." He spoke quietly so his little brother didn't hear. "Can we keep him? Please? Pretty please?"_

 _That was the first and only time Hiro ever saw Tadashi beg and plead for something, the older brother never begging to get a toy at the toy store, or pleading to stay up a little later to watch a program on television. He normally just asked if there was anything he could do to earn money for the toy, or if they had an extra VHS so he could tape the show. Tadashi never begged for anything._

 _Cass looked from Tadashi to the kitten, back to Tadashi then to Hiro who was now trying to reach up to pet the multi-colored kitty._

 _She sighed, leaned down so Hiro could pet the cat. "Tadashi, he will mainly be your responsibility."_

 _The eleven year old's face brightened. "Okay!"_

" _Promise?" She looked him in the eye, showing she was serious._

" _Pinky swear!" He held out his pinky to his aunt, who linked hers with his and they shook on it._

" _It's bad to break a pinky promise." Hiro absently commented, to enthralled with the soft fur of he cat to really pay attention._

 _Cass nodded. "Yes it is."_

" _Santa won't bring you presents." The little child continued, basically trying to get the tiny kitten into his arms instead of his aunt's._

" _Sit on the floor Hiro." Cass told him gently. "The kitty is small and you have to be very careful holding him."_

 _Little Hiro did as he was told and sat on the floor, Tadashi doing the same and sitting next to his little brother._

" _Just let him come to you." She told the four year old as she placed the kitten on the floor._

 _Hiro nodded and held out his hand to try to beckon the cat to him. It took a few minutes, but Hiro was finally able to get the cat to partially crawl into his lap. The cat wasn't big enough, so it just settled on having it's upper body lay across Hiro's little leg._

But that was a long time ago. Over ten years. It never even dawned on Hiro that Mochi was getting up there age wise, until now.

He texted his aunt, telling her what was going on. He was going to call her, but wasn't sure exactly how long that dinner thing was. So it startled him when his phone rang.

"What happened?" She greeted him.

He sighed. "I finally found him under Tadashi's bed." He hesitated for a moment. "And I couldn't get him to come out. And the last few days, he hasn't really been moving around." He rambled on. "Anyway, I finally coaxed him out, he couldn't move his back legs. And he's meowing all small and stuff." He continued to pet the cat in between the ears. "And, uh, I don't know what's gonna happen, but I thought maybe you'd want to say something to him." He finished quietly. "Mochi, it's aunt Cass." He childishly held the phone up to the cat.

He couldn't hear what his aunt was saying, if she was even saying anything, but knowing her, she was, but Mochi would try to respond. He got a few _mew_ s and a full but quiet _meow_ out.

Hiro brought the phone back up to his ear. "He doesn't sound good at all."

He heard her sigh. "No he doesn't."

They both fell quiet for a minute.

"I'm sorry I'm not there." She told him.

He shrugged. "You probably wouldn't want to see him this way." He muttered.

(-)

Hiro stayed leaned up against the wall. He didn't' want to leave Mochi alone. Not even for a second. It wasn't until a number of hours later, long after the sun had left the sky and the moon took it's place, did Mochi stop breathing. Hiro sniffled as he gently moved their beloved pet off his leg so he could get a box and a few things to bury him with.

He glanced at Tadashi's hat on the desk lamp next to his brother's old bed. "You better take care of him. He _was_ your responsibility after all. And you can't break a pinky promise."


End file.
